Issue Date: March 27-April 2, 2006, Posted On: 3/27/2006 Insight magazineIssue 
      Date: March 27-April 2, 2006, Posted On: 3/27/2006 Insight magazine

      Bush spends heavily to get message out 
      The Bush administration, amid record budget deficits, has been spending 
      huge amounts on advertising and public relations contracts to counter a 
      hostile media environment.

      The administration spent $1.62 billion on advertising and public relations 
      contracts over two and a half years. Most of the money was spent by the 
      Defense Department amid its efforts to recruit soldiers for the war in 
      Afghanistan and Iraq.

      "The extent of the Bush administration's propaganda effort is 
      unprecedented and disturbing," said Rep. George Miller, California 
      Democrat.

      Mr. Miller and other Democrats ordered a study of the administration's PR 
      budget. In January, the Government Accountability Office issued a report 
      that examined the media budgets of seven federal departments.

      In all, the seven departments reported a total of 343 media contracts from 
      2003 to mid-2005. Forty percent of the contracts were with advertising 
      agencies and 38 percent were with media organizations.

      Another two percent of the contracts were with "individual members of the 
      media." They were not identified in the report.

      The Pentagon hired agencies to do everything from designing Web sites, 
      drafting a logo for the Air Force to placing ads for leisure travel, 
      bowling and "football frenzy." The U.S. Army spent millions of dollars in 
      media messages and staff to promote the "strategic perspective in the 
      Global War on Terrorism."

      Officials were also coached on how to be interviewed, the report said. 
      Several other departments hired media consultants to present a positive 
      spin on their performance.

      In November 2005, the U.S. military was found to have used the Lincoln 
      Group to plant articles written by American troops in Iraqi newspapers. An 
      inquiry ordered by Gen. George Casey, the commander of the U.S.-led 
      coalition in Iraq, found that the Washington-based public relations group 
      did not violate policy by paying Iraqis to post the articles.

      But Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called for 
      a Pentagon review of the practice of paying the Iraqi media to plant 
      pro-American stories.

 